Toy launcher apparatus are well known. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,843,751 issued to Ferri in 1989 entitled “Toy Firearm Operated By Compress Air, With Magazine In An Element In The Guise Of A Trigger,” purport to disclose a toy firearm operated by compressed air and a spring, and the firearm includes a retractable magazine. To cock the firearm a user pulls on a trigger 24/sliding element 16 against a spring 18 and a spring 7. A resilient rocker detent 32 engages a detent 12/rod 10 to displace the rod 10 and a piston 5, and to compress the spring 7. Toward the end of the cocking action the rear end of the detent 32 comes into contact with an inclined surface 14C of a slide housing 14 and the detent 32 is displaced (against a spring 34) until the detent 32 releases the detent 12. At this point the spring 7 propels the piston 5 forward and the compressed air fires the projectile P1.
Another example is U.S. Pat. No. 9,389,042 issued in 2016 to Clayton and entitled “Projectile Launcher.” The Clayton patent purports to disclose a projectile launcher having a movable slide 12, which draws a plunger 21 rearwards by engagement of a slide flange 19 and a plunger flange 21a. As the plunger moves rearward a spring 24 is compressed and at an end of the slide movement a trigger latch 23c engages an opening 21c. In one variation, projectiles may be loaded from above the frame 111, FIG. 9.
The earlier patents disclose devices that are complicated and expensive, and neither of the two patents discloses an element pushing a projectile rearward into a barrel nor act as a barrier to prevent jamming from below and above.